All the applications — both fully indexed and partially indexed — are available at the ISA website. However, it is important to know how to write the immigrant’s surname in its original spelling in order to search on the ISA website. For example, when searching for “Goldstein,” one may not find a Polish immigrant with this name, since his surname may be spelled Goldsztejn or Goldsztajn; likewise, when searching for “Abramovitz,” no Romanian record will pop up, since in Romania this name is normally spelled “Abramovici,” according to Romanian-language spelling conventions. Nevertheless, it all depends. European borders changed constantly and even if the immigrant was Polish, but his birthplace was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the moment of registration, his surname may be written with German spelling. Therefore, a little playing with the search engine on the ISA site might be needed. When searching on MyHeritage, the website's Global Name Translation Technology™ will automatically find alternative spellings of names, which means that if the exact spelling is not known, it’s best to start searching there.
The naturalization records are held by the Israel State Archives, and have all been scanned and uploaded to the ISA website. Many of these naturalization applications have been fully indexed by the ISA, which are also available among the MyHeritage collection Mandatory Palestine Naturalization Applications, 1937–1947
The remaining applications are only partially indexed, which means they only show the names of the main applicants and not other details such as spouse and birthplace which do appear in the full index. These partially indexed naturalization records can only be found on the ISA website.
It is recommended to start searching by using only part of the immigrant's name. When searching for Mordechai Silverman, for example, it is possible that the right person is not found under this name, since his folder appears as Mordko Zylberman, as commonly spelled in Polish. Although it's best to start with a surname, sometimes the surname may be too common (such as Cohen, Levi, Katz, Goldstein, Goldberg, among many others), and it may take a long time to find the right person; this is why it is recommended to add the person’s first name as well. This might help find the person faster, but it is worth spending some time playing with the correct combination of spellings for both the first name and the surname.
If the person's birthplace is known, it can be entered as a second keyword, regardless of whether it is the current name of the city. For example, if know the person being researched was born in Przemyśl, Poland, but it is unknown how the city's name was originally spelled or how it may appear in the available documents, typing “Przemyśl” in the search engine is a great start.
When searching for a female immigrant, it is important to take into account that most of them were married when they applied to be naturalized and therefore, they may appear under their husbands’ names. This information is relevant mainly for partially indexed applications, where ONLY the name of the main applicant (in most cases the husband) appears. For example, when searching for a woman with the surname “Listek,” two results of the fully indexed applications will appear: two men who were married to a woman named Listek. However, when searching for another woman named Nemy Abromowicz and typing her name in the search engine, nothing is going to appear. But if the name of her husband is known and he was named Wodowski, when entering his name instead, a partial index record will appear:
Another piece of information important to take into account is the name of one of the two supporters that each applicant had to submit when completing the form, which were usually relatives or close acquaintances from the same city or town. If the name of the person researched is not found, but the name of one of their supporters is known, it might be worth searching for that name and filtering down after that.
Explore more about records in Israel
- Israeli immigration records on MyHeritage
- Immigration and travel records on MyHeritage
- Austria, Vienna, Jewish Emigrant Applications, 1938-1939 collection on MyHeritage
- Eretz Israel Telephone Directory, 1944 collection on MyHeritage
- MyHeritage Completed Digitizing All of Israel’s Cemeteries! from the MyHeritage blog